Pride and Prejudice Essay | Essay

Elizabeth Benett: a Challenge to Convention

Summary: In Pride & Prejudice, by Jane Austen, Elizabeth Benett challeneges society and her social class. She challenges the gender roles of the nineteenth century by disregarding acts of propriety. Throughout the novel, she is held in contempt as being too disagreeable and athletic for a woman by the culture around her.

Elizabeth Bennet: A Challenge to Convention

"Girls have long been evaluated on the basis of appearance and caught in myriad double binds: achieve, but not too much, be polite, but be yourself, be feminine and adult; be aware of our cultural heritage, but don't comment on the sexism. . . . Girls are trained to be less than who they really are. They are trained to be what the culture wants of its young women, not what they themselves want to become."

-Mary Pipher, Psychologist

As a result of civilization and training, females have been taught to downplay their intellect and talent so as not to offend the male ego. Woman has been trained to sacrifice her needs and desires for the satisfaction of society and her man. This standard has only been challenged in recent years and for millennia remained accepted with very few exceptions. However, there are exceptions, and...